Bartosz Sudorowski, or Bartek, has been a member of AEGEE-Zielona Góra since february 2010 and is very active on a local level ever since. At Autumn Agora Budapest he was elected Network Commissioner and now he aims to be the new Network Director of AEGEE-Europe. Let’s discover more about him.
The AEGEEan: Can you tell a little bit more about yourself?
Bartosz: So, I’m 23 years old and I’m studying Political Sciences, but before that I studied German. I love fishing and working in the garden. My hobby is singing. I sang both in a choir and in a blues band. I do not like when I’m alone… I have to be with people all the time. That’s why my familys keep on saying that I’m treating home as a hotel: I only sleep and eat there. I live in a small village 10 kilometres from Zielona Góra (where my local is), but I love it there, because I love nature, and I have the opportunity to spend time outside with fresh air. I’m a member of the fanclub for the speedway (a motorcycle sport ed.) team of my city.
The AEGEEan: What will be the first thing you will do as a Network director?
Bartosz: First, I would like to send an official communication to all the locals to introduce myself, hoping for fruitful cooperation between us. Next to that, I’ll send a survey to the Network Commissioner and Presidents, asking how they imagine our cooperation and what they expect from me. In my opinion, people have to take part in creating rules for work, because when the ideas about how to work together will come from them, it will be the best platform for us to cooperate in the best way. When just one person is making rules for cooperation between a lot of people, then it’s not democratic.
The AEGEEan: We know that regular CD members won’t have a fixed position, but you expressed the will to be Network Director. Currently, Pauline Létard (AEGEE-Toulouse) is running for the same position. What will you do if you are both elected?
Bartosz: It is very difficult to answer to this question. At first, we’ll discuss together with the other CD members and we will try to find the best solution for the Network. Then, when the decision is made (it doesn’t matter what we’ll decide), I’ll cooperate together with Pauline, and I’m sure that it will be a very fruitful cooperation. (By the time this interview was made, Pauline Létard was still running for a position in the Comité Directeur. She later withrew her candidature. ed)
The AEGEEan: On your application you mentioned the LSO. What is this exactly?
Bartosz: Local Status Overview. The Network Director has a database of all the locals with their points (it’s about fulfilling the Anntennae Criteria). As a former Netcom, President, and Secretary of a local I know very well how important it is to inform the Network Commissioners and boards about the current status of their locals. I want to do my best in doing this task.
The AEGEEan: You wrote about having office hours during your time as Comité Directeur member. I presume you referred to 9 to 5 working hours. Do you think they are going to be enough with the workload you have in the CD house?
Bartosz: I think that this is a misunderstanding. By creating office hours I meant that, apart from my standard work as Network Director, I would like to create a special duty for people. I’ll announce the office hours one week before, and I’ll be able to speak with everyone on Skype, mail, phone, Facebook, Twitter, and all the other platforms. This duty is the first step to make the European level closer to the local level.
The AEGEEan: The gap between the European Level and locals is under the sun. As CD member, how will you take care of this problem?
Bartosz: How the Network Director, Comité Directeur and all of the European level can be closer to the Network? They have to spend time with the people from the Network. We have to start with the easiest things, like even sleeping in the gym together. We have to be together with the people every time. Secondly, there is my idea about the duty of a Network Director. I think that all the bodies have to try to do this. We need to allocate a special session in every NWM about the European level as an obligatory part of the NWM’s agenda. I would like to cooperate with other bodies to create a special, cyclic, short program with the title: “Let’s know each other better”. Once per week we’ll publish three people who are active in the European level on Facebook and Twitter with their photo, a short description about their hobbies and generally about themselves with their contact information.
The AEGEEan: How do you think the lovely initiative to extend the Bone Marrow Donors Registration Day to all of the Network will match with the Network’s needs?
Bartosz: Again I have to clarify my idea. I would like to implement the idea of Bone Marrow Donors Registration Days beyond the borders of Poland. If locals accept and implement this idea, is a decision that can only be made by those locals. I know very well that all the locals have other needs and sometimes they have a very strict workplan throughout the year, so they may or may not accept this idea. However, I would like to say that thanks to this project AEGEE can have a common platform that will create more external recognition. That can be a part of our visibility. I know that for example the Summer Universities are very popular. But when an organization has a lovely initiative like this one as a flagship project, a platform to cooperate together all over the continent, all the medias could talk about us. Thanks to this, we’ll have more opportunities to find new partners, and finally and most importantly, we’ll have a real influence on saving lives. This is not only beautiful speaking, there are real numbers behind it. On the first edition, we got 5600 potential donors registered, in the second one 17500, and in the third 12500. In six days, only in one country, we registered more than 35 000 people. This is more than in the last five years in all of Europe! So back to the question – I think that a lot of locals will want to get involved with this beautiful idea.
And now, some questions from our readers.
The AEGEEan: Do you consider yourself as a team player?
Bartosz: Yes, of course. I’m in AEGEE for more than four years, and I was a part of a lot of different teams (9 LTC as a coordinator, trainer, team member, 4 NWM – 2 on the team, 2 as Netcom, member of a team/coordinator/helper of more than 100 AEGEE and non-AEGEE projects). Also, I’ve been a member of the Students’ Parliament for five years now, I’m a member of the biggest team of students fest of my city and I was a member of the board of my local four times (President, Secretary, Vice President, FR-Responsible). So yes – definitely I’m a team player!
The AEGEEan: Did you learn to speak English? How are you going to survive one year by speaking only English?
Bartosz: I was expecting this question. Yes, I’ve got lessons, and now my English is good. I’m not saying that it is perfect, because that will be a lie. Nobody is perfect and everyone is learning all of their life. I’ll do my best to improve my worst sides, but when you are asking about my English, I can answer that it is much better because of the work I did in the last months. I know that some of CD members don’t speak French and despite this they successfully fulfill their tasks. I speak German too, which can appear to be helpful.
The AEGEEan: You were a Network Commissioner who was very national oriented. Why do you believe that you will be able to orient a team like the NetCom where the first priority is the European focus and not the national, thus going against your own actions?
Bartosz: People who are thinking that I was “a very national oriented Netcom” aren’t well informed about my work. Me and Inez Wenta (AEGEE-Toruń) were the first Netcommies who proposed the idea of interregional NWM’s, and we actually did it. We held an interregional NWM between our Networks. Then – you can ask people who are coming to NWMs of my Network. I’m saying to the participants every time: “Don’t focus on your country”. This organization has two levels – local, where you are learning and working for the local and yourself, and European, where you are working for the whole organization. I was the first Netcom in the history of this Network who implemented more than one thematic part on the NWM, and one of those parts was only about the European level (EL). You ask me why? Because I know that without EL this organization won’t have the opportunity to exist. I want to implement the Idea of Bone Marrow Donors Registration Day in other countries, because my priority is the European focus. In my local we hold workshops about the European level three or four times per year, in order to give members the opportunity to develop them and push them to be active on EL. So finally: if I wanted to be focused on the national level, I would only have been a member of NZS (Niezależne Zrzeszenie Studentów, Independent Students’ Union ed.) – the biggest national student organization in Poland. My priority, however, is the European Level, and to show to the Network that EL is not so scary, and it is for everyone who is ambitious, wants to develop him/herself and wants to be influencial in the youth’s life in Europe.
Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia